(Almost) every Saturday we review all Kickstarter campaigns in the "Games" category ending in the next week. We do a quick write up on anything we find notable here. This is written from the perspective of people looking to buy games and game accessories that offer interesting mechanics or ideas. We prefer heavy strategy games, RPG Games, miniature-heavy games, and games with real-time mechanics as opposed to party games, children's games, or very light strategy games.

We Backed

Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is. These are the campaigns we backed in this batch.

This is a compelling dice-drafting and worker placement game. You roll dice, then draft them against the other players. The die you pick determines where you'll send your diver down on the wrecks. This looks like a really fun medium-weight strategy game, and for only $30 USD we decided to give it some support.

I recently heard a very positive review of one of the games featured in this book on the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast. I was skeptical that this would be good, but after looking over the KS page and hearing more about the types of games you can expect to find inside, I'm very impressed with the ingenuity and the playtesting that appears to have gone into the book.

$60 is a lot to ask for a hardcover book, even one that weighs in at 300 pages. This is a tough price point and is probably what held back this one from far-exceeding its goal. It would have been nice if they had offered a softcover edition at $40. But, it looks certain they'll make their goal, so everyone will be able to try out some tasty gaming when the book ships next year.

Board Games

This is an interesting asymmetrical light strategy game. You pick your role as a good guy and bad guy and have goals you need to hit in order to win. Outlaws attempt to burn down buildings while the good guys attempt to not have the buildings burn. Unfortunately, the art is holding this one back, and it does not look to be hitting its goal.

The publisher Modiphius is best known for their Role Playing Games. They have Kickstarted Infinity, John Carter of Mars, and Conan RPGs. They also are responsible for publishing Matt Leacock (Forbidden Desert, Pandemic) Thunderbirds game. This game is a surprise, licensing Kung Fu Panda is quite a bit bigger than Thunderbirds.

The game itself is miniature-based real-time combat game and is designed by the creator of the Escape series. We like real-time games but, I don't care much about Kung Fu Panda. I think this game is going to do a lot better at retail than it is on Kickstarter.

This is a first created by a company that has been making miniatures Kickstarters for a couple of years named Taxali. The game is a straightforward card and dice strategy game with nice art and a dark fantasy theme. The game is super-aggressively priced at only $20 USD, which is probably why the Kickstarter is doing so well.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen this game much on Facebook or on Boardgame geek, it is self-published by Mateuz Albricht, who had previously published a game called The Exiled: Siege (6.7 BGG). This game has a lot of neat sci-fi and mech miniatures, and is fully co-operative.

The game is played by putting together story cards which reveal twists and turns as your team works to execute a mission. The stretch goals are conservative (mostly card content and not new miniatures), and this one looks like it might be a winner. However, with the previous game being earning a mediocre score on BGG, we decided to pass.

I'm only posting this here in case you may have backed. You need to pull your pledge now, the developers revealed the rule book and it was a word-for-word copy of Massive Darkness. Scams do happen in board games on Kickstarter, and it was nice to see this one got caught in time. Hopefully Kickstarter will cancel this one before it ends.

This is a neat-looking viking game that has failed to capture much attention on Kickstarter, and looks unlikely to meet its goal. I'm not really sure why it failed to get much attention, but it may be the sort-of-boring looking components, and the fact that there's no real prototype photographed (the shots are all obviously from Tabletop Simulator.)

This is an expansion to the 2017 game Coldwater Crown (7.6 BGG). It's a set collection and worker placement game where you will attempt to catch the most fish. The game has really nice visual design and definitely has its fans (although it recieved a poor review from Dice Tower's Zee.) The Sea expansion extends the board and gives players another action to head out to see to catch larger fish.

This is another Steve Jackson Munchkin Kickstarter (the last one was a Starfinder one from a few months ago.) This is a surprisingly small Kickstarter with only a mini-expansion, and some new Munchkin components like a Kill-o-Meter.

RPGs

I've never played Labyrinth Lord, but I know that many consider a spiritual successor to the D&D game. This Kickstarter is for a combined book that includes both D&D Basic and AD&D-compatible rules in one place. The basic stretch goals have been unlocked, and there will be an adventure included in the book.

We backed the original Grimtooth Kickstarter and got more ideas for adventurer deathtraps than we'll ever possibly use. This new Goodman games KS details "TrapSylvania" which I guess is where Grimtooth lives. This extends the world introduced in DCC Module 87.5 "Museum of Death."

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*None of the campaigns mentioned here are sponsored or influenced via payment, prize or other means. If we know or have a connection to someone running the campaign, we will mention it in the campaign notes. If there is a campaign you think should be mentioned here, please e-mail us and tell us what makes it special and we'll review!